Better Business Bureau Military Line assists service members

Thursday

Nov 23, 2017 at 12:01 AM

Carrie Dungan crutledgeb

Both service members new to the Fort Bragg area and seasoned residents need to know which businesses are reputable in the community. The Better Business Bureau aims to help Soldiers and their Families with this task, as well as provide guidance for major life events, like buying a car, investing and watching out for scams. “The BBB stands for trust, integrity and honesty in the marketplace,” said John D’Ambrosio, President/CEO, BBB of Coastal Carolina. “Everything that we do is to elevate business and also to make sure that good business people get the business while business people who don’t respond to complaints don’t. Our job is to keep good businesses here and bad businesses out.”In 2004, the BBB established the Military Line program to provide information, education and outreach to all branches of service about financial literacy and consumer protection. The Military Line program is located in 115 BBB offices throughout the U.S., and offers the following resources:

Financial Readiness classes
Subject matter experts for consumer issues
Scam alerts
Financial education apps
Business reviews
Wise Giving reports
Dispute Resolution
Military consumer e-newsletter
Complaint data collection and analysis
It is important for service members to take advantage of these services, said Quantrell Quick, business relations coordinator, BBB of Coastal Carolina.“The services that we offer are free to military,” she said. “We have invested a lot into making sure we have information appropriate for them. We work with other military organizations to make sure we are updated on things that are relevant to them.”D’Ambrosio said the organization’s mission for Military Line is simple. “We think the military’s great. That’s the bottom line. What they do gives us the freedom to do what we want to do. I think that it’s a great day because people appreciate the military and the BBB appreciates the military.” For more information on the Military Line program, visit www.bbb.org/military, www.facebook.com/miltaryline or www.twitter.com/BBB_MilLine. To sign up for the e-newsletter, visit www.bbbmarketplaceturst.org.